Beware the Poison!!

There is an area to the side of our house that is a little strip of trees.  It's the place at the bottom of a slope and an area we think will be perfect to put our first bee hive next year.  The slope is hard to mow so where the grass is I think I'll eventually over seed with wildflowers, clover and pollinator happy plants so there will be minimal need to mow....plus who wants to mow close to a bee hive?

Right now the area is coming back alive from the winter.  There is an old wire fence tangled in the trees and many, many pots and other such trash.  It's such an eyesore.  In addition to that the underbrush is full of poison ivy.  I can avoid that in the woods but on my property I prefer not to have that where I will be frequenting and where silly dogs may decide to roll.

Poison ivy

The entire floor area is covered in little tufts of poison ivy mixed with Virginia Creeper and some greenbrier.

Field of poison!

Poison ivy takes on a shrub, bush or vine form and I'm pretty such this bush thing is one of it's evil faces.  It's all interwoven with thorny greenbrier and tangles of Virginia Creeper vines. Poison ivy is the only one of these three that will give you a bad rash but the other stuff just covers trees and shrubs in a big tangle of yuck.

Evil bush?

 There is a poor dog wood bogged down by the greenbrier.  I love dogwood and Steve and I are working on trying to get it freed.  We need to treat the poison ivy first so we can be safe to pull all this stuff out and clear up the area.

Strangled Dogwood

You can see on the other side it's even worse, it's just a big tangle.  I'd love to be able to clear it out and ride a horse through here plus other neighbors use this as a pathway if they are heading to our other neighbors our out to the Hill Forest trail further on.

It's all just a tangle of messy plants.  Poison ivy, thorny greenbrier, and even Japanese honeysuckle.  

Tangles with poison ivy

Some of the honeysuckle may be saved since it isn't over grown with poison ivy.  I will need to be aware that there could be some lurking in the beds near my house since the ivy beds are very close to the house and birds love to eat the berries.

Japanese Honeysuckle

 Another not so evil plant is the Pokeberry or Pokeweed.  It's not edible and poisonous to eat for humans and horses alike but it produces berries that birds love.  I may clear out a lot of these but I'll leave some areas available for the Pokeweed to live. 

Pokeweed

My bluebirds will like them and since we have a lovely little house given to use by a neighbor...

...and the little birdies have started to make it home, we need to make sure we still have yummies for the feathered tenants to eat. This will be a project in the next month to begin clearing this area out to make it good for having the hive.  We will also hopefully get around to planting milkweed and other pollinator plants near where the hive will be located.

 There are several pines and then Sweet Gum trees in this little strip.  I like the leaves!  In the fall their seed is a round prickly thing but I don't find it a big issue like some people I guess.

Then there are some beautiful flowers in the pasture....buttercup.  It's not something the horses eat and it's a good thing because it's poisonous to them.  I'll have to keep it well mowed to prevent more spreading before I can fully eradicate them and get the pasture thick with good forage.  All in time!

Ration Balancer-New Feed

I'm always looking for a good ration balancer for my horses.  I had my mare on ProAdvantage when I was at Grandview and before that I used SmartPaks.  She doesn't need the extra calories for sure.  A lot of pleasure horses don't unless they are hard keepers.  I changed to Nutrena Empower since the local feed store kept that product.  It was a good feed but made Chance look like he was wearing red lipstick on his little white muzzle!!  LOL.  The store closed and I had to figure out what to change them to.

Southern States is the big chain feed store here along with Tractor Supply.  They had some decent brands but not a big selection.  I happened upon Tribute at Hurdle Mills Feed.  They have a great balancer that also has added joint support!!!  Tribute Essential K Plus GC  contains Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and MSM which are the primary supplements for joint health.  Since both horses are over 15 years I figured this is a great find!  It doesn't cost that much and comes in 50 lb bags vs. 40 lbs.  The price for the bag I think was in the high 20's or very low 30's, I don't remember since I've only purchased two bags so far.  Compared to the mid 20's for a 40 lb bag of other balancers plus the fact this has some added benefits...I'm sold.  The horses like it and eat it up...well Dani will eat anything, LOL.

I feed Chance only 22 ounces per day and Dani gets 26 ounces...it's very low feeding rates so they don't get all those calories.  I'm pretty happy with the nutrients listed, it's comparable to a lot of the good ones out there.  We'll have to see how it goes on this but both my babies are pretty easy keepers.  Just thought I'd share about this new to me feed!

Bees and Other Stinging Things

A few weeks ago I noticed some little mounds all over on little sloping area of the property near our driveway and mailbox.  I remember the previous owners mentioning something about ground bees.  Well, these are it.  They are categorized under miner bees and can be the metallic bees in the family Haliticidae or what these guys seem to be from the family Andrenidae...yes I'm a entomology nerd.

They are generally peaceful unless you really disrupt them but even walking through the area doesn't seem to bother them much.  I've had some land on me and watched them gather nectar and return to their little homes which are cute little mounds in dry earth.  After a couple months they die off and the larvae over winter to start the cycle again next year.  I'm happy with these tenants since they are in a perfectly harmless location and well....they are good little pollinators.

These are some pictures of the little guys foraging.

I love taking pictures of insects and really need to get a good macro lens so I can get closer crisp pictures.  

The picture below I call "Super Bee".  You can't even see her wings so she looks like she just needs a cape to fly around!  LOL.  So cute.  I enjoy having them!

One bee I do not enjoy is the carpenter bee, they are drilling holes in our porch, barn and run-in shed.  They can cause damage and the males that protect the nests dive bomb you like little assholes.  Luckily the boys don't sting but if they happen to be chasing a wasp away towards me I don't like the idea I could get in the way and have a wasp sting me.  Killing them isn't a solution, fixing the bare wood that they are attracted to should help.  That will be a fall project in addition to screening in the bottom of the porch since they are boring into the support structure we can't really get to.

Sure the front porch is rickety and needs to be replaced but we need it to last until we can do that.  When we do replace it we'll use materials that are not carpenter bee friendly.  There are traps that are supposed to help but the one we've made hasn't caught a single bee.  I'm switching to a deterrent game plan.  All I've read about bees and wasps is that orange and citrus oils are nasty to them.  I picked up some orange oil and am soaking the steps and other areas in the product.  It smells great!!!  Hopefully it will make the area unappealing to the bees and they will go elsewhere.

The barn is gonna need a major overhaul with painting done etc..  The bees are less likely to bore into painted wood but I've read that it's not always the case.  We'll try paint and the orange oil as well.  The best way to control them is to exclude them.  Make raw wood unavailable, make it unappealing (jury's out on whether orange oil or other home remedies will work) and set traps where activity is highest (haven't seen one trapped yet...).  It will be an on going battle for some time until we get it under control I'm sure.

Wasps are another thing.  We've removed countless old nests and the beginnings of several others.  I also picked up a fake wasp nest that says it should deter them from building a nest.  I think the wasps building their homes around here haven't read that product description since several have hung out in my hay shed right near the decoy.  Since I don't want to use wasp spray around the hay I have a long range bottle with apple cider vinegar.  I think I can shoot the wasp and when it falls down stomp on it or kill it with a long pole the hubby got me for this purpose.

I love bees and my hubby and I plan on raising honey bees next year. Aggressive and destructive critters around the house on the other hand are not my thing.  I mean if I had little butterflies making nests all over the place I wouldn't have an issue with them since they don't sting or destroy my house structure!  It's the stinging and protecting of nests that I don't like when I'm trying to care for my ponies.  Here's hoping the orange oil, decoys, traps and eventual painting of the wood will reduce the nesting habits on my house and barn so I can live in a less fear of stings!!

A general design using a router to make a mason bee house.  It can be taken apart and
cleaned to reduce the parasitic wasp and mite issues that are found in other designs

Oh another bee I've discovered is the Mason bee.  They go into preexisting holes to lay their eggs and then patch up the hole with mud.  They are not destructive and are very peaceful like the miners.  I've discovered that some are making a home in my lawn mower bagger.  Not the best place for them but I don't use it so I guess I'll just leave it alone until the new bees come out next year.  We also plan on making some Mason bee hotels so we can encourage these little pollinators.  I think I feel better helping out the less destructive pollinators while I try to deter the bullies and destroyers.  

I don't want to harm anything but I can't have my house getting bored into nor getting stung every time I try to feed my ponies!  Enjoy this cute video of the mason bees!  I was so close to them and they were very chill.

Serene Sunday

Serene Sunday

Spring has Sprung in North Carolina

Beautiful spring is here!  The grass is starting to green up, flowers are starting to bloom and pollen is EVERYWHERE!  I have lots to post but been so busy working on some stuff that I haven't had the chance to write.

I've also had an interview and attended a job fair with Labcorp where there were quick 10 minute interviews that 30 something of us were run through...kinda crazy.  Hoping I hear something soon.

Geek Acres planning seems to have a new life this spring with the hubby and I getting excited about planting things.   I'll post more as I get organized.

Our Farmlett Name?

I was recently asked in the comments what I've named my little farmlett.  I had Blue Crescent Stables for my Breyer barn when I was a kid.  What a grand name filled with show horses.

Now I have a small 4 acre plot with two horses, a hopeful orchard and future bees....plus we plan to start a garden.  We've named our pastures The Shire, Gallifrey and Westeros after some sci-fi and fantasy loves.  We have the "Wormhole" that is the sacrifice paddock that goes between them.  

It just makes sense to name it....Geek Acres.  Yes.  I'm sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last but it's my little piece of this world and that name just works for us.  LOL.

And with that said, I'll leave you with this......

Tack Room

Spring organization at it's best.  Now if only I could get the motivation to organize parts of the house I've been neglecting....

I readjusted one of the blanket holders (every screw was stripped so that made the job extra fun!).  Then I added a shelf to better organize large bottles of horse supplies like fly spray, hoof oil and Excaliber boy cleaner!  I'm sure I'll be adding more organization later on but this is where we are right now.  Happy spring!

Breyer Horse Display

The former owner of the house had trains and cars displayed on plain wooden shelves above the windows in the bonus/office room.  I already knew once seeing it that I could maybe do something for my Breyer horses.  I've gotten a lot of ideas from Braymere Custom Saddlery.  I'm not longer an active hobbyist and when I was it was original finish but I live through reading her blog and seeing the amazing tack and miniature model horse stuff.

The shelving was narrow so the main worry was if one of the horses became unbalanced from vibration or something like that.  A fence seemed like the most logical answer and would add to the charm of the display.  I went to Michaels Arts and Crafts store to pick up some basswood pieces of the correct size to make a fence post and railings.

After measuring and cutting my husband and I were able to get the perfect fit of the fencing to span the shelf yet allow the horses room to be placed onto the shelf space.  Glue and paint; and vuala!

I tried to group the horses with different colors spread out so it wasn't just a tone on tone look.  My favorite coast colors being darker ones like bays and chestnuts being the majority of my collection this task was a little bit of a challenge but I think the few lighter color horses break up the monotony. 

All of the horses I have left from my childhood collection fit!  I've sold many in the past years since I had a ton and with getting my own horse and then moving it just never made sense to cart around boxes of model horses.  Now I have a fun display in an area of the house walls that would otherwise be empty aside from maybe a picture.  When I look up and see my precious collection I think of the horsinalities each Breyer was given and the games my childhood best friend Jessica and I would play.

There is Marshmellow, the colt who won championships at a local Breyer horse show and his adoptive uncle Firebolt (personality modeled after Jesse from Full House).  Then there was Jackie the buckskin pony who all the boys were hot for.  Then there was BC Requested a buckskin galloping horse I was so excited to get for Christmas.  BC was my "stable" name; Blue Crescent Stables.  Oh the joys of childhood.  Now I just need to figure out where I can put the barn my dad and I made together....I have a couple ideas....

Five, Six....Pick up Sticks

Our property has a little easement around it that makes for a nice little riding path in addition to riding down the neighborhood.  One section of the property had many low branches that I couldn't ride through without getting smacked.  The other area had some branches that were a bit too low but it was wide enough I could avoid them by steering Dani away from them.  I decided to cut all low lying branches to make it horseback friendly.

I cut down quite a few branches!  Then the hubby joined me with a ladder to get some of the taller branches off towards the woods. I haven't had a chance to ride through the newly cleared area yet but I will report!

Then in Westeros we decided to finally get rid of the thorny bush mess in the middle of the pasture.  There are also tons of gravel rocks there....not sure why.  We'll rake that area up and spread some grass seed there to fill it in, perhaps next weekend.  While we were cutting the thorn bush Chance decided to come over and see if it was edible.  Ugh, silly pony!

We later took the truck back into the easement to load up the branches for hauling off to the dump which mulches yard waste.  It was just damp enough near the end of the easement where it reaches a little dip before our neighbors driveway.  We got stuck.  Luckily our neighbor was out there and volunteered her tractor which made quick work of getting our truck onto solid ground.

Yeah, the ground here is soft even when it's been dry for a while!  We won't be trying that again.  We still have another section that needs a lot of work to allow horses to move through it plus there are some piles of dead wood and brush along the edges of the woods and in some treed areas.  I want to get those cleaned up and then see about planting some native bee and butterfly happy plants!  Slowly but surely we'll get our little to do list checked off.